Vegan Lunchbox post about Depression Cooking.

Accompanying video:

Part of the problem getting a bail out passed is that our representatives are getting emails and calls of up to 200-1 against it from their constituents. If you're up for re-election, that can be daunting.

I think the problem was presenting it as a bail out of fat cats in the first place, because that's not exactly what it's meant to do. What it's meant to do is restore the flow of credit--they should have called it the credit rescue bill. They haven't done a good job on TV of explaining how this works. So now the stock market is free-falling because some politicians were afraid to vote yes in an election year.

I suspect most people hear about credit and think, "Well I can wait to buy a car or house so it doesn't affect me."

Here's how it will affect everyone: businesses rely on lines of credit to operate in hard times or any time their cash flow is slow or interrupted--like a slow economy. When I say operate I mean pay employees and buy the stuff they need to do business. They may rely on such credit a few times a year or monthly, depending on the flow of their business.

If they can't get that line of credit or they must pay a lot more in interest, guess what? Layoffs! Reduction of benefits! No raises! Or all three...

This affects all businesses, large and small.

Also, Suze Orman was talking about credit limits being reduced by credit card companies. That will affect your credit rating--part of your FICO score is your amount of credit accessed vs how much you have available. That ratio strongly affects the FICO score.

We will still have some financial problems even with this bill--inflation, a continued mild recession and so on. But we could sink into a depression with up to 20 per cent unemployment without it.

You can find your representative and write to him or her here. Put in your zip to find yours.

The site is getting a lot of traffic so it may take a few moments.

ETA: Volume is so high they can't handle it. Here's an alternate way:

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Once you find your representative and the rep's web site, you can send an email via their site's contact link.

Here's what I said:

I support the bail out--I just wanted to let you know since I've heard how many are against it and are being vocal about that. I think however that there has been a real failure of all political leaders to fully explain it. As long as it is just "we're trying to help Main Street" and "you won't be able to buy a car" and so on, it won't reach voters. They don't all know, as I do, how much businesses regularly rely on credit lines to operate and how this can affect their jobs, benefits, and any potential raises. They think of businesses as always having lots of money. They don't know there's a cyclical nature to business income while expenses remain static. Someone needs to get a flow chart like I saw one night on CNN or MSNBC to explain it to people who don't think about finance--EVER. :)

I have to say it is interesting to be part of the largest bank failure in U.S. history (so far). Thank Goddess for FDIC, that's all I can say. :)

It's fascinating to watch the melt down of our economy and the frantic efforts to save it while not being able to de-politicize the rescue efforts. The McCain theater was just pathetic. Meanwhile the Palin interviews with Katie Couric are just plain scary at times. Palin continues to insist that being close to Russia has conferred some special wisdom and then goes on to mention Putin invading their air space. Really? Have you been reading too much cold war fiction or something?

I hope McCain ends up bitterly regretting this hasty, political choice for V.P. It seems her favorables are dropping and her unfavorables are rising as people finally get a look into the bubble surrounding her and are worried about what they hear.

These days I'm too busy watching the spectacle that this election season provides to write much about it. You can't make this stuff up--no editor would buy it as fiction! I mean, Palin being protected from witchcraft? Wow! (Too bad, I was thinking of a spell...)

With thanks to Jessi, a copy of This Modern World from 1998:

http://thismodernworld.com/4478

For those who say we couldn't have seen this coming--which is almost nobody at this point.

I'm sure everyone else is reeling in shock from the financial news this week and the staggering numbers involved in bailing out our financial institutions from the bad mortgages they so eagerly gave out--in fact, sometimes thrust upon ill-educated and non-English speaking borrowers. Instead of explaining carefully how Adjustable Rate Mortgages worked--that your mortgage payment goes up with any increase in the Feds lending rate--they just let people think they could always afford their mortgage payment, which started out low. Most people, alas, don't read the volumes of fine print in such contracts--they rely on the explanation of their real estate agent mainly. Who speaks legalese? And under de-regulation, no one was watching to make sure these things were explained properly or that the borrower was really able to take on the debt. So here we are, watching the domino effect spill out onto stock markets, mutual funds, and other parts of our financial system. Now it comes down to the taxpayer--and the children and grandchildren and possibly the great-grandchildren of today's taxpayer.

Today we are all mortgage brokers...

Let's remember--and tell our grandchildren to remember--Republicans are NOT the party of fiscal responsibility any more. They have spent so much on war and greed and irresponsibility that it will be a miracle if we can finance health care and shore up our infrastructure and repair our schools for global competition.

Once in awhile on "Wife Swap" I see a husband who acts like a parent doling out an allowance to a kid when he gives his stay at home wife some cash. She, of course, has to beg for this money. He never seems to get that his wife is saving the family a lot of money by making the sacrifice of staying home and raising the kids, running the house, and doing a thousand other thankless and unpaid tasks. If that wife were suddenly to disappear he would have to hire a nanny and a housekeeper at the very least. One could imagine 30-40K being spent on that.

So I was interested to see that Salon's blog "Broadsheet" had a post directing our attention to a debate about the actual value of what the stay at home moms do.

At least people are talking about it, whether or not they agree on the numbers.